1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to an image formation apparatus and can be applied to an image formation apparatus including a developer image carrier for carrying a developer image, for example.
2. Description of Related Art
An image formation apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, or a facsimile device has a photoreceptor drum, as a developer image carrier, which carries a developer image when a developer is deposited on an electrostatic latent image formed by exposure to light. The developer image on the photoreceptor drum is transferred to a medium (a sheet of paper, for example) conveyed by a conveyor belt. The image on the medium is fixed by being pressed/heated by a fixing device, and thus the image is formed on the medium.
Conventionally, when continuous printing or the like is performed in an image formation apparatus, for example, a temperature within the image formation apparatus rises, and the surface temperature of a photoreceptor drum rises accordingly. In such a case, developer characteristics degrade, which may result in degradation of the print quality.
Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-212968) describes a technique for improving the print quality by sensing the surface temperature of a photoreceptor drum and controlling image formation processing based on the sensed temperature. Particularly, the technique described in Patent Literature 1 senses the temperature of a conveyor belt abutting on the photoreceptor drum and controls the image formation processing by using the sensed temperature as the surface temperature of the photoreceptor drum.